How do you keep on top of housework/daily routine with kids?

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Since having kids, I've found that military precision planning is the key Making lists and schedules and sticking to a routine has helped me an awful lot. I'm not totally obsessive about sticking to it point by point but I feel that a general guide helps me stay organised. I sit down at the start of every week and make a list of things I need to get done and divide them up over the days so that it's somewhat manageable.

However, since I've moved house recently, I've kinda lost my mojo and I'm finding it hard to get back into the swing of things I feel like I'm constantly treading water without getting anywhere. Also, I find that anything outside of my normal schedule (doctors appointments, friends visiting etc) throw me off completely and the whole day is gone trying to get the kids ready to go and nothing else gets done.

What does everyone else do? I'd love some tips! I am seriously considering getting a cleaner in for 2 hours a week just to free up some time

lazygal

Get a cleaner. We have one who comes for three hours a week. Best money we spend. It keeps on top of things like the bathrooms and floors, and because we know she's coming we tend to keep the place tidier. I try to cook for the week and make things that can be reheated and put on a wash every day to keep the laundry under control.

Another thing that's worked for us is decluttering as much as possible. We have gotten ride of so much stuff and are still in the process of filtering out clothes, toys and books. The less stuff you have to worry about the better. Another big thing is that I switched to a shorter working week. This is a big decision but one that's reduced our stress considerably. I try to get things like shopping, NCT, doctor visits and other necessary things done on the days I'm not in work and to catch up on the housework too, leaving our weekends free for family time as much as possible.

seamus

It's about routines as you've found.

We've just moved house ourselves and all of the routines we had before are gone. Not just disrupted, gone, completely wiped out. And it's not just routines in relation to the kids and the house, it's the little routines that you didn't even know you had, like getting yourself to bed at night.

Nothing is in the same place it was before, some things don't even exist any more, everything is just all over the place.

So all you can really do is tread water until you manage to rebuild your routines again and get back into the groove. Which will take six months to a year.

Prioritise the things which really need to be done, figure out what new barriers are in your way and remove them. For example, in the old house our daughter's feeding stuff had its own drawer in a press. Which we don't have now, and it makes it difficult to sort her out when you have to move your stuff out of the way. Previously could have done it with our eyes closed. So we're buying a kitchen unit where her stuff will live (along with a lot of other stuff).

I actually think getting yourself a cleaner in for a couple of hours a week, at least for the first few months after moving in, is a great idea. It's a massive amount of pressure that you can farm out to someone else.

contrary_mary

I'm in work full time so it is a struggle, but I generally try to get things done in the evenings after bedtime. I will try to do noisy things like hoovering while DH is looking after bathtime, but everything else is done later. It means we don't get any "downtime" in the evenings but it's the only way to cope and not have housework taking over the weekend. Having said that, all it takes is something small to throw things off kilter. We had workmen in to do some minor jobs done in the house last week and I have really struggled to get back on top of things, so we will have to work hard this weekend to sort things out. I feel very stressed when the house is messy so I'm having a bad week this week!

elly123

The one thing i find hard to stay on top of is washing! There is only 3 of us but myself and hubby play sport or go the gym so the load is extra. We don't have a dryer so its more getting the clothes dry. Cant put on heat as its too warm out and my bill would be through the roof and cant use line because of chance it will rain while we are out/in work! I hoover/wash floors/ clean bathrooms most Sunday evenings. and I also have myself and my sons clothes picked out and ironed for the week ahead. This makes mornings so much easier. I wasn't organised about two weeks ago and i felt like i was chasing my tail for the week. I think planning and organising is very important when children are around otherwise time just gets away from you.

I am thinking of getting a small white board that i can jot notes down on, like reminders of stuff that needs to be done. Life is so busy i am always forgetting stuff. I usually use my phone but im thinking the white board might be handy as hubby will also see what needs doing and might use his initiative and make my load a bit lighter he's great when i ask him to do anything but i hate asking so im thinking the white board will come in handy

pwurple

Cleaner.

A cleaner makes you become tidy. Cleaner won't clean unless they can see the floor!

dori_dormer

I do the list thing too! Only way to be productive at all. I have a giant master list of big TO-dos, then I have my chore list. I also have a great notepad that lists the days of the week on it.

Then every Monday I write one big thing and one chore that I must get done per day. If theyre small things I'll put down more.
If I've a play date or something I'll only put down easy things.

Morning routine is essential to me, to get us ready for the day. I always put on a wash first thing too. I prepare the wash in a basket the night before and leave it in front of the machine before bed.

We've just moved too, the to-do list feels endless and you feel so disorganised for ages!

Jerrica

lazygal wrote: »

Get a cleaner.

pwurple wrote: »

Cleaner.

A cleaner makes you become tidy. Cleaner won't clean unless they can see the floor!

Another vote here for a cleaner. Yes it costs money, but it return you get so much less stress - I can't put a monetary value on being able to relax and have messy fun with my husband and baby at the weekends knowing she'll be around on Monday morning. It's also really helped stop us from quibbling over who does what around the house. We know we're lucky to have help so we get on with it and do the chores we need to do.

Moonbeam

My house is a constant mess (6,4,2 and 1 year olds) so unless you are very disciplined it is impossible. It only lasts for a few years though and once it is clean and you enjoy the kids and have fun then I have given up caring too much.

John Mason

We send clothes to the laundrette once a week.

Other than that we have reduced our standards of cleanliness and live in squalor.

I went on strike a few weeks ago, no-one noticed so I am just going with it

Roesy

We have a cleaner for 2-3 hours one morning a week. Takes the deep clean off my hands. The rest of the week is just about keeping on top of things. I don't bother cleaning up toys until the kids are gone to bed(unless there's a visitor coming). We operate a clean as you go rule too in terms of food prep and mealtimes. We also subscribe to the deck utter rule...well as much as you can with two under the age of two.

monflat

Moonbeam wrote: »

My house is a constant mess (6,4,2 and 1 year olds) so unless you are very disciplined it is impossible. It only lasts for a few years though and once it is clean and you enjoy the kids and have fun then I have given up caring too much.

This is my house too. With a 5 yr old 3 yr old and just one yr old.
Ud be lucky to get a space at the table to eat ur dinner.
I work full time opposite husband so we are barely in house together where I could get a run of it
Basic jobs are done like washin ironing and a basic tidy up that's it
I think thou also it depends on the type of house you have and your children.
My children won't leave my side presumably because I work. So despite me converting the sitting room into a play room they won't play in it.
Other friends I know have a play room and the children spend their days in it.

Also depends on how much storage space you have for toys etc.
Ah feck it it won't be forever.
It gets on my nerves somedays tho.

Neyite

I just lowered my standards.

I bring the cleaning products into the bathroom when bathing toddler to clean and bring in the laundry basket and fold and sort stuff while I'm supervising bath time. I distract him into helping me - give him a duster or the hoover and let him help while I get stuck into other stuff. We do a big catch-up on the weekend mornings of the floors and general clutter.

But most of the time I look at the clutter and mess and sticky paw prints everywhere and tell myself it wont last forever.

Moonbeam

Every so often I look at the toys and mess and laundry and through the stress of it all...think how lucky I am:)

jopax

Roesy wrote: »

We have a cleaner for 2-3 hours one morning a week. Takes the deep clean off my hands. The rest of the week is just about keeping on top of things. I don't bother cleaning up toys until the kids are gone to bed(unless there's a visitor coming). We operate a clean as you go rule too in terms of food prep and mealtimes. We also subscribe to the deck utter rule...well as much as you can with two under the age of two.

Hi Rosey,

Just curious, what does the deck utter rule mean?

How Strange

Get s cleaner. We have someone come in for 2 hours one day a week. I don't know what we'd do without her. I still clean and out on washes in the evenings and spend the weekends doing things but at least the basics are done by the cleaner.
We try to batch cook one or two meals over the weekend and I've no issue with eating curry or bolognaise for lunch and dinner a few days in a row. It makes week day evenings so much easier.

And we've lowered our standards considerably. Clothes are rarely ironed except for shirts and anything that absolutely needs to be.

madeinamerica

What does the cleaner do for you? We've just an apartment but I'm tempted to get one for the bathroom and kitchen.

lulu1

Op your house is a home now that you have kids. It's not the end of the world if there is toys laying around. So what if the dinner dishes are still in the sink at bed time. When my kids were young the only thing I tried to keep on top of was the ironing. Don't worry if your house is a mess. If you have friends coming to visit it only takes 5 mins to shove everything into a cupboard

I would not take on a cleaner but instead I would spend the money on a family day out

sm213

I'm at home full time with a 4month old and an almost 4 year old ( and a dog that robs from the bin, gets at the washing and pulls her bed apart almost daily)
I was breastfeeding exclusively up until a couple of weeks ago.
I still find it a struggle to keep the house clean.
I'll do the sitting room then go to kitchen come back in and its like a bomb site as my oldest is setting up 'booby traps' which is 5 jigsaws on the floor a skipping rope looped around it among other things tell her to clean it up and she piles it all up and asks do I like her castle.
Walk into the kitchen and the dog has managed to disembowel her bed. Can't throw her out the back because she eats the trampoline protective mat
We have a cleaning day usually once a month and that helps a lot.
I enjoy my kids more often than I clean but I don't think I'll regret that.
Your house will be clean once they move out I say enjoy it while it lasts .

Oh and make a 'crap press' everything gets shoved in there when people are coming over teehee.

Roesy

jopax wrote: »

Hi Rosey,

Just curious, what does the deck utter rule mean?

Autocorrect....grrrrr! That should read declutter:D

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Thanks a million for all the suggestions it's a relief to know I'm not on my own! I think I'm just a bit overwhelmed because I had just managed to get a handle on things in the old house. I assumed the routine would change when we moved but didn't realise it would be wiped out completely like Seamus said :eek: Thankfully, we are on top of the laundry, we lost control of it for a few weeks and it was horrific. Clothes mountain dotted with explosion nappy clothes during the hottest week of the year was nearly the end of me So a load of washing is always the first chore of the day. Dinner is also sorted easy enough cos I like cooking and will often bung something in the slow cooker in the morning. So I guess maybe I'm not a total loss.

Doridormer I do the very same thing with the lists I have a dodopad notebook and the days are split into sections, it's so handy and I actually feel like I'm getting stuff done if I complete everything for the day, even if it's just small tasks. It's definitely the deep cleaning kind of stuff I can't find the time to do so a cleaner probably is the best option. It might also encourage me to keep the upstairs rooms clean. My bedroom was a tip last week and the mere thought that the sky man might need to run a wire through it had me on my knees with a scrubbing brush

I love the idea of the crap press, we had 3 of them in the old house but the new house has less storage and my OH has forbidden me from having one because I used to pile things in and he'd open it and everything would fall out on top of him

God be with the days of my first pregnancy when I sat around daydreaming about how much free time I would have to clean the house when my maternity leave started :pac:

Diamond Doll

Bruce Orange Mission wrote: »

God be with the days of my first pregnancy when I sat around daydreaming about how much free time I would have to clean the house when my maternity leave started :pac:

Oh god that was me too! I honestly thought I'd be so bored that my house would be gleaming and spotlessly clean and tidy all of the time ... LOL!

I'm glad so many on this thread agree that a cleaner is pretty much a necessity to keep on top of the big jobs. It's one thing my partner and I disagree about ... he thinks we don't need one, I think that it's a completely justifiable expense. I mean we have precious enough free time outside of work as it is, without wasting it with time-consuming chores like doing the floors and scrubbing the showers etc. We've gotten a cleaner in a couple of times, and she can get more done in a couple of hours than I could get done even if I was alone in the house for the entire day (which makes sense really, when she does it for a living.) I'd love to get one in on a regular basis, maybe every second week. Will be raising the topic with my partner again!

pwurple

madeinamerica wrote: »

What does the cleaner do for you? We've just an apartment but I'm tempted to get one for the bathroom and kitchen.

You discuss with them what you want.

Ours does this list:
Cleans all surfaces
Hoovers
Washes floors
Dusts the skirting and ceilings
Bathroom clean
One "big job"... Things like cleaning the oven, the inside of the fridge, windows, cupboards.
Ironing pile.

I know some people also ask for beds to be made up or sheets changed, towels to be changed and stuck in the wash.

I know it's a luxury, but we both work. if we were spending every weekend cleaning, we'd never get to go to the park together or go for bike rides. I kept it on for mat leave too.

I depends how chilled you are too. I start to feel a bit anxious if the house is coming in on top of me with messiness and millions of jobs. Some stuff is fine, but mountains of ironing and dirty bathroom would stress me out. Even if I didn't do it, a clean house is very relaxing! Gives me illusion of being in control, heehee.

Neyite

Every few months I pack the OH off to the grandparents for the weekend with our toddler, and do a big clean and de-clutter. I'm really efficient at cleaning when I get stuck into it and don't have distractions. I'll clean for a few hours with my favourite music on, then settle down in blissful peace and quiet and cleanliness with wine and telly remote all to myself as my reward.

I will always have a clean bathroom and kitchen though- kitchen is a daily clean, bathrooms usually weekly with a top up if needed. Messy is fine in our house, manky is not. I operate a clean as you go system and trying to train up the other two inhabitants in the concept. I've recently started to do a thing where if I'm going into another room I always look to take something out of the room I'm in to put it in its rightful place in the room I'm going to.

I try to chip away at it during the week so that my weekend list of chores are minimised, and I'm not wasting family time on cleaning - usually its really only the floors that need doing by the weekend thankfully and that doesn't take long. I noticed last night that all my light switches are grubby and sticky so that's a job for tonight. I usually do the grocery shop, put on the dinner, prep lunches, the OH usually does the washing and hanging out clothes and we both do a quick tidy up each evening.

I Coke the loos if going away for the weekend, and when I come home a quick rub of the brush and a flush and they are sparkling. Oven Pride has saved me a LOT of heartache. Steep overnight or over weekend, rinse down shelves in the bath.

I'd love someone to do my ironing for me.

wdmfapq4zs83hv

Where are people getting their cleaners from? Id love to get someone trustworthy in a few hours a week but no idea where to find one..

John Mason

Arthur Damp Salon wrote: »

Where are people getting their cleaners from? Id love to get someone trustworthy in a few hours a week but no idea where to find one..

https://hassle.com/ie

nikpmup

We're trying to sell the house at the moment, and we might get a call from the Estate agent to say that someone's coming to view the house tomorrow morning, or later that evening!! It's a cause of real stress - we have to ship out for the half hour or so they're here, and we have to leave the house showroom immaculate, and with absolutly none of our personal items lying around! I'm talking fresh folded towels on the bathroom shelf, nothing on the kitchen counter except a (gleaming) toaster and kettle, and the house smelling like fresh linen, fresh fruit and fresh flowers on the table. Pain in the neck. However, it has meant that we have managed to get a cleaning routine down and can have the house immaculate in about an hour. We keep big Ikea plastic boxes stacked under the stairs, everything that desn't have a home gets put in those and hidden for the viewings. Anything else gets shoved into the boot of the car for the time we're out of the house.
Once we do move house I'm strongly considering getting a cleaner. We'll have a longer commute and the house is bigger, so more hoovering etc. Worth every penny IMO.

Jerrica

nikpmup wrote: »

We're trying to sell the house at the moment, and we might get a call from the Estate agent to say that someone's coming to view the house tomorrow morning, or later that evening!!

Fliiping heck, I can understand on-demand viewings for rentals, but if you're selling? That's tough going. Why not designated viewing times?

dori_dormer

Yeah I'd tell your estate agent, to either do a big viewing. Or say he can book them in for 6pm on a Wednesday or 12 on a sat and that's it!

nikpmup

Cos we really, really need the house sold!! We really have to be as flexible as we can be. Most of the viewings to be fair have been on Sat mornings, we had a couple of big groups in the first two weeks.

I really, really, reaaly want to lob out in my pj's drinking wine tomorrow evening, but there's someone coming in the evening and I don't think an unwashed harried 40 yr old Ma slobbed out on the sofa adds to the ambience!!

Millem

nikpmup wrote: »

Cos we really, really need the house sold!! We really have to be as flexible as we can be. Most of the viewings to be fair have been on Sat mornings, we had a couple of big groups in the first two weeks.

I really, really, reaaly want to lob out in my pj's drinking wine tomorrow evening, but there's someone coming in the evening and I don't think an unwashed harried 40 yr old Ma slobbed out on the sofa adds to the ambience!!

Nikpmup I went to the strangest viewing a few months ago where the family and their Yorkshire terrier were in the dining room doing homework :eek:
It was a priest who owned the house and they were his tenants!!! They had also made very smelly fajitas for dinner!!!! Very very bizarre